Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Randy Weber (TX-14) joined the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act, which fights back against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) recently announced federal registry for firearms with stabilizing braces. Yesterday, Rep. Weber spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives criticizing the attack on our Second Amendment. 

“The Second Amendment is clear: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” said Rep. Weber. “But the Far Left’s dangerous attack on the United States Constitution continues unabated with the ATF’s unconstitutional pistol brace rule. We are done sitting back and letting a bunch of faceless bureaucrats destroy the Second Amendment. I will continue to fight for every single law-abiding gun owner.”

Background

The SHORT Act will remove the unconstitutional taxation, registration, and regulation in the draconian National Firearms Act (NFA) of firearms such as Short-Barreled Rifles (SBR), Short-Barreled Shotguns (SBS), and Any Other Weapons (AOW).

This legislation is needed to push back against President Biden’s attacks on millions of gun owners with his attempted ban on certain pistols through the ATF’s rule change.

Using the NFA, the Biden Administration is pretending people who own pistols with stabilizing braces in fact possess illegal short-barreled rifles. ATF is using this excuse to facilitate a ban, forcing gun owners to violate their rule or participate in an unconstitutional “Amnesty Registration of Pistol Brace weapons,” in order to keep their own firearms.

The only way to protect gun owners from the Biden Administration and ensure the ATF does not enact this rule (or any future version of it) is by deregulating NFA firearms through the elimination of unconstitutional and unnecessary restrictions, taxation, and registration placed on NFA firearms in 1934.

Short-Barreled Rifle Deregulation:

• An SBR is a rifle that has a barrel length less than 16 inches or an overall length less than 26 inches.
• SBRs, along with SBSs and AOWs, are not any more dangerous than any other firearm.
• The ATF reports that there are over 532,000 registered SBRs as of May 2021.
• SBRs include many rifles but the most popular SBRs are variants of the AR-15.
• Under the ATF's rule, any rifle with a stabilizing brace would de facto be designated an SBR and thus be subject to all NFA Regulations. This means the Biden Administration may be registering, taxing, and regulating as many as 40 million lawfully purchased pistols without the passage of a new law.

Short-Barreled Shotgun Deregulation:

• An SBS is a shotgun that has a barrel length less than 18 inches or an overall length less than 26 inches.
• The ATF reports that there are over 162,000 registered SBSs as of May 2021.
• The SHORT Act would remove the unconstitutional “sporting use” requirement for shotguns, which allows ATF bureaucrats to arbitrarily regulate certain shotguns like explosives.

Any Other Weapon Deregulation:

• An AOW is an ambiguous catch-all term for firearms that do not fit neatly into the provided definitions. Without removing this definition, the ATF could abuse this statute to justify another ban on pistols. This is a crucial provision to end the attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
• The ATF reports that there are over 67,000 registered AOWs as of May 2021.

Record Destruction:

Additionally, the legislation would require the ATF destroy all records relating to the registration, transfer, or manufacture of these NFA firearms, preventing the ATF from further harassing owners or confiscating these firearms. Gun registration always leads to gun confiscation